Officials are inviting Slopers to sound off about traffic enforcement in the wake of a 12-year-old being killed by a van in October on Prospect Park West and protesters calling for lowered speed limits citywide early last week.
Police can do more to stop motorists from killing pedestrians, admitted the captain of Park Slope’s precinct last week, and he will discuss plans to minimize the carnage at a town hall meeting on Dec. 3.
“I know that traffic has become an issue; I know people are concerned about it,” said Michael Ameri, the precinct’s commanding officer, at a community council meeting last week. “Can we do better? Obviously. Am I going to make everybody happy? No. Am I going to stop every accident from happening? No. But the effort is there, and there’s always room for improvement.”
The precinct issued no speeding tickets in September and just 16 in October, according to police statistics.
Ameri will be joined by Councilman Brad Lander and the family of Samuel Cohen Eckstein, the boy who died down the road from his Prospect Park West home on Oct. 8.
The Council’s transportation committee is working to pass the Safe Streets Act, a bill that would lower speed limits from 30 miles-per-hour to 20-miles-per-hour on residential streets narrower than 60 feet, or four-to-six lanes. Cohen Eckstein’s parents testified in favor of the legislation at a teary hearing in late October.
Forum organizers also include the groups Park Slope Parents and Park Slope Neighbors, the latter of which tried and failed to convince the city to make the neighborhood a so-called “Slow Zone” in 2011. Now it thinks there might be more momentum behind such measures.
“There seems to be a city-wide interest, not only in Park Slope, in doing something about making the streets safer,” said organization co-founder Eric McClure.
Town hall meeting on road safety at Park Slope United Methodist Church [410 Sixth Ave. between Seventh and Eighth streets in Park Slope]. Tues, Dec. 3, 6:30–8:30 pm.
